Restaurateur for an evening

By: Jennifer Joyner

Posted: 12/1/08

In a course on food preparation at the UA, students are given a chance to see what it's like to run a restaurant for a night.

Instructor Allen Powell divides the course into groups of two and "on each team, one student is the head chef and the other acts as a service manager," Powell said.

?The students have a responsibility to create a menu, which must contain certain items to be served. These can include an entree, an appetizer, dessert and bread, said Jennifer Schneider, a student in the class. ?The menu must also offer coffee or tea.

On certain days, the meals are themed. In the past, the menus have had themes such as German, Southwestern, Cajun, Californian, vegetarian, Italian, Chinese and other Asian cuisines.

"We've done almost every type of cuisine there is," Powell said.

?The teams must also cost out the menu, meaning that they must put a price on the menu items that covers the cost to prepare the food and makes the restaurant a profit. The students are also responsible to schedule employees, come up with recipes and prepare the food. The students work with the chefs and the restaurant manager at Ella's Restaurant, which is where the project takes place, Powell said. ?

Students must turn in a booklet of information about the meal, including information about pricing, recipes for the menu items and other paperwork, Schneider said.?

"It is a lot of work, but [it is] one of the best hands-on learning experiences you can get," she said.

?The class is offered for three majors: general food, hospitality and dietetics.

"This class bridges the gap between the three," Powell said. Students who are hospitality majors want to go into restaurant or hotel management. The dietetics major is for those who want to be dieticians, and the class helps them learn to work in large food service facilities. These days, dietitians also deal with catering and fine dining, Powell said. ?

"This semester, there are 11 people in the class, so we only did five meals," he said. "However, next semester there will be 30 people in the class, so there will be at least 10 meals."

The students are in charge of getting people to come to the specialized meals at Ella's Restaurant. They generally tell their friends to come and also hand out fliers.

"I have an e-mail list, and I inform people through that about the meals," Powell said. ? "We manage to incorporate business with the education component."

?Although there are no meals left to attend this semester, the course will resume their meal services next semester. The price of the meals is $15 plus tax. The meals are served at 5 p.m. Mondays at Ella's Restaurant.